While Breaking Dawn: Part 1 also beat Eclipse, it didn't get near HP8's $43.5 million, and, for the first time, the Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart-Taylor Lautner saga didn't grow by leaps and bounds from film to film, with Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the fourth film in the series, edging Eclipse, the third installment, by only $300,000.

By comparison, Eclipse outgrossed New Moon at midnight by $6 million, and New Moon improved on the original Twilight's night-owl take by $17 million.

"It's possible the series has hit a glass ceiling," Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said this morning.

It's also possible, Bock said, Twilight will shatter the glass ceiling as soon as next year when Breaking Dawn: Part 2, the franchise's concluding film, arrives.

Heading into the midnight shows, Exhibitor Relations and other box-office prognosticators were calling for Breaking Dawn: Part 1 to make as much as $150 million by Sunday. Bock said he stood by that high-end projection today.

Anything over $143 million will establish the Bill Condon-directed movie as the biggest-opening Twilight film, ahead of New Moon; a three-day gross of $143 million-$150 million would establish Breaking Dawn: Part 1 as Hollywood's fourth-biggest opener ever, behind only Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight, and, wait for it, HP8.